Atlante sculpture in the round White Carrara Marble

Planning and realization of a majestic statue for a monumental fountain. The work has been created in different elements built around a steel structure needed to support the above basin and to contain the electrical and hydraulic system. We have realized both the statue and the six levels waterfall fountain with light and water games.

The customer wanted a revisited reproduction of the famous Atlante Farnese: the marble sculpture of the II century A.D., exposed in the archeological national museum of Naples.

Atlante is a character of the Greek mythology represented while holding the celestial sphere.

Marble: Atlante Bianco Carrara marble (view the marble sheet) and garment Breccia Medicea marble
Dimensions: height 2,5 meters
Customer: Marshanski Group
Place: private residence Cesarea – Israel

Relevant phases of the work realization

Arlenia fountain with light and water games

Technical planning

The customer didn’t want structural, electrical and hydraulic systems on view and required that the garment was resized to admire the whole human figure. We have planned an inner structure able to support the above basin, to contain the hydraulic tubes and the electrical cables. We have decided to create a supporting zinc-coated steel cylinder, with a footprint of 25 cm of diameter for the passage of the systems.

The challenge was to build the statue around the tube to hide it completely. In order to give to Atlante a natural posture, we have made technical and artistic drawings and clay models to find the ideal solution with the minimum number of marble elements.

More information: planning

Manufacturing

We have worked, shaped and sculpted every customized element around the tube. To avoid a figure out of proportion, some points have proved very critical because we had to reduce the marble to a thin thickness of only 7 mm.

We have realized the sculpture in 12 total elements, of which 8 have been assembled on the cylinder in our workshop and 4 separately delivered in order to allow the final works of installation, connection and testing of the systems.

More information: manufacturing

Golden elements

During the manufacturing, the customer required to represent the World supported by Atlante with a sphere in golden bronze of about 90 cm of diameter. The golden work has been commissioned to a handcrafted workshop.
In the cooling process of the lost wax bronze, the final dimensions are not precisely calculable so the measures can result different than those expected.
Considering the time constraints for the shipment, we could not wait the delivery of the work to realize the customized statue. With a light material, we have created a provisional sphere model to make the various tests, to find the correct posture and the precise position of the hands in order to obtain an elegant and natural result.

The hands have been sculpted only when the real golden sphere was delivered to us.

More information: traditional techniques

Assembly and installation

To reduce the costs, the customer wanted that the installation was made by the local workers, even if they didn’t have experience in the manufacturing of precious marble works.

Every heavy and fragile element could not be lifted, handled and worked for too long with the aid of machineries. The work was very delicate because some junction points had a maximum variation of 2 mm. In order to minimize the operations on site, the assembly and the provisional connection have been made with care and attention in our workshop. We have verified and tested the joints and the various union points.

In order to guarantee the success of the work, our specialized layer visited the customer to organize and supervise the operations of installation, personally intervening in the most delicate phases.

The statue had to be installed at a height of 4 meters, in the middle of a basin suspended at 3,5 meters off the ground: so all the operations were difficult.

More information: assembly and installation

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